A 61-year-old lifeguard has denied sexually abusing a young girl for two years at a Dublin swimming pool.
"These allegations are completely untrue and impossible," he told a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. On the second day of his trial he denied abusing the girl when she was between 11 and 13 years old.
He told Mr Barry White SC (with Ms Aileen Donnelly), defending, that he had never tried to buy the girl's silence and had never told her that the abuse was their "little secret." He added, "I never shared secrets with any young girl."
Four swimming instructors who had worked at the pool said the accused man had not regularly supervised the alleged victim's swimming class. The man denies seven counts of indecent assault between 1990 and 1991. The woman, now 21 years old, has claimed she was abused during breaks in swimming training at the pool.
The defendant told Mr White that he and a local residents' association had set up a swimming club at a Dublin Corporation swimming pool and the alleged victim had become a member. He agreed she had been in some classes he had supervised.
He said that during breaks in classes, he showed the children how to do back-flips and some jumped into the water from his shoulder. He might have innocently touched the children's chest areas while throwing them into the air, or during horseplay.
Asked by Ms Mary-Ellen Ring SC, prosecuting, why he was not more cautious when dealing with a 12 or 13-year-old female, the accused replied, "I always respected the innocence of those children." He described her evidence that he had indecently assaulted her as "a complete fabrication."
Evidence has concluded before Judge Frank O'Donnell and a jury.